School administrators in Eden Prairie, MN recently decided to punish a group of students who appeared to be drinking alcohol in pictures posted on Facebook.  In the pictures, several students were seen to be holding red plastic cups of the sort typically used for keg beer or mixed drinks.  No actual alcohol was seen, mind you, just the cups.

In response to this decision by the school administrators, several students at Eden Prairie High decided to walk out in protest.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) - For 16-year-old Nick Laurent, walking out of Eden Prairie High School Thursday to protest the school’s punishment of students seen partying on Facebook pages was about asking administrators to be fair.

More than a dozen students joined Laurent after learning about the walkout from fliers the junior handed out the day before. The students said school administrators overreacted to the perception that students in the photos were drinking.

“It’s the loudest thing we could do,” said Laurent, who organized the walkout but said he wasn’t one of the students in the photos.

Good on Laurent and his fellow students.

For one, while I’d be suspicious about pictures of underage party-goers sporting those red cups, the school should have to prove its case before taking action.  Education in school doesn’t just happen in the classroom.  The way educators and administrators conduct themselves is important too, and cracking down on students who might have been drinking alcohol at an event that a) wasn’t sanctioned by the school and b) wasn’t held on school property is simply unfair.

For another, where does the school’s authority on these matters end?  Again, we’re talking about an event that did not take place on school property, was not sanctioned or sponsored by the school in any way and took place after school hours.  It seems to me that what students do after school hours is the business of the parents, not the school.  If kids are acting up during non-school hours I’d be fine with them being barred from activities like sports, but for the school to discipline them in general for things that don’t take place on school time?

That sounds like yet another instance of big government overstepping its bounds.

Upon seeing these pictures the proper course of action for the school should have been to notify the parents and leave it at that.